Micromechanical systems have many potential applications, including electronic assembly, fiber alignment, medical applications, spacecraft applications and the like. One of the challenges of this field has been the development of microactuators, such as motors. Electrostatic motors described in the literature suffer from several difficulties such as friction, the lack of suitable gears to match the impedance of the motor to the load, large clamping forces that tend to bind the motor, and the need for better bearings. Moreover, at the present time, known electrostatic motors tend to be large and require substantial voltages for operation. A need exists for improvements in these areas to realize effective and useful electrostatic motors.